With less the six months to go, Rugby World Cup 2019™ is set to attract the largest number of foreign fans in the tournament’s history with more than 600,000 of the 1.8 million available tickets expected to be held by international fans making the journey to Japan to be part of this once in a lifetime Rugby World Cup.
Based on current ticket purchase data from the priority and general sales phases, as well as official travel and hospitality programs England fans are expected to make up 23.9 per cent of the foreign fan contingent, followed by Australia with 15.6 per cent and Ireland with 7.9 per cent. The sixth largest international group will be fans from the USA with 4.6 per cent and The Netherlands rounds of the top ten with 2.5 per cent, demonstrating the global appeal of rugby’s showcase event. The remaining 160 countries comprise a total of 19.7 per cent with fans coming to Japan quite literally from the four corners of the globe, including as far away as Antarctica.
Japan Rugby World Cup 2019 Organizing Committee CEO Akira Shimazu said: “With less than six months to go before Asia’s first Rugby World Cup kicks off in Japan, its encouraging to see such an incredible response from international fans. While we expected to see large numbers coming from the traditional rugby nations, I am thrilled that both the USA and The Netherlands are in the top ten countries of international ticket purchases.”
“From the very beginning, we set out to make Rugby World Cup 2019 a truly ground-breaking tournament, so to have such strong interest from fans in Rugby’s frontier markets like the USA and The Netherlands, as well as countries like Germany, Spain and Brazil is absolutely wonderful. Asian nations are also well represented with more than 3% of international fans coming from countries neighboring Japan.”
World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont added: “The incredible demand for tickets demonstrates just why we believe that Rugby World Cup 2019 will be one of the great Rugby World Cups and a truly unique experience for fans. It will be a tournament that has fans and teams at heart, celebrates rugby and Japan and will further the reach and growth of the sport across Asia and around the world.”
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